I am standing on the Great Wall of China and I am thinking about what someone on the street in Beijing told me about the wall. “You are not a real man until you have climbed the Great Wall of China!” Now I can imagine all kinds of initiation rites into becoming a man, and they are all far more taxing than climbing a brick wall. Not to be mistaken, I am in complete AWE over the Great Wall of China. But not over the workout it provides while walking on it. No I am in awe over its construction!The Great Wall Of China stretches over 6700 kilometers! That’s the same distance as from Los Angeles to Iceland! From New York to Rio de Janeiro! Seriously folks, that’s impressive! Moreover, the construction literally took many millions of people, of which about one million died during the construction. Their bodies buried within the wall. So not only is it a big wall, its also the biggest tomb in the world!
What blows my mind is the fact that today, we could never build such a thing. You may think we are at the peak of our capabilities at this point in time with our space travel, DNA research, flat-screen TV’s, GPS navigation, voice-activated light switches, apple-flavoured dental floss, disposable cameras and chocolate body-paint kits. But to build something like the Great Wall of China, we simply don’t have the resources or the manpower to get it done. And even if we had, it would cost enough money to simultaneously bankrupt several medium-sized countries! It can’t be done anymore.
The Great Wall of China, The pyramids, the Taj Mahal… they are but a few examples of structures we cannot build anymore. So we need to be extra careful with the ones we have. Because when they are gone, all we are left with are merely condo’s, sheds and outhouses compared to these great structures.
Jeroen Breukels
